The Tunnels You Tread
by beksta
Summary: When the dark lady comes to power, teen troublemakers James Potter and Colin Dursley are thrust into the 3rd war with no back up or outside support. Can James survive the war and live up to the esteemed Potter name and the expectations of a nation?


**A/N: Important, please read!**

This story will be set at a different date to canon, because in cannon everything I have written so far would have been set in 2016, and so I have decided rather than making a fool out of myself by trying to make up stuff that will happen in the future (For example when I began this story the prime minster was Gordon Brown, now it's David Camron and it could quite easily be someone else by the time I'm done) and so I have just moved the timeline back so that the story now begins in 2002 rather than 2016.

-beksta

**Prologue**

Sunday 1st September 2002

Professor Sibyl Trelawney sat alone in her darkened tower staring into the murky depths of her crystal ball. Trelawney believed that she had inherited the powers of her great-great-grandmother, the celebrated Seer Cassandra Trelawney, but by the age of sixty, having spent over forty years of her life professing to have the gift of foresight; Trelawney had only made two real prophecies and knew about neither of them. And yet she still held firmly to the belief that she had inherited the powers of divination.

Tonight – try as she might – Sibyl could not foresee anything. The tea leaves showed her nothing she did not already know, and all she could see in the crystal ball was mist – so unless there was going to be a great fog, her time had been wasted, and would have been better spent finishing off her stash of cooking sherry, she kept under her violently pink pouffe at the back of the tower.

The scents of lily and jasmine hung thickly in the air. And although having consumed very little alcohol, Trelawney felt her eyelids begin to grow heavy, she fought to stay awake, but the lily and jasmine were too overpowering and she soon fell into a deep slumber.

_There was a heavy fog, no, not fog… steam. The steam gently parted to show the giant red steam engine that read 'The Hogwarts Express' on the front of the lead car. From one of the carriages came four figures. The first person was tall a tall boy, he was very pale and had blazing red hair; he was muscular, although the muscles didn't show well through his school robes. The boy wore square glasses and had hazel eyes his face was not unlike that of Lily Evans, although his features were quite clearly masculine._

_The second person to walk from the carriage was a girl with lightly bronzed skin and short, copper hair pointing out at odd angles as though she had just got out of bed. The girl was shorter than the first boy and less toned, but the slender figure still appeared to be very powerful. She had the same mischievous glint in her eyes as the first boy and a cheeky smirk to match. The second boy was obviously related to the girl but had a more brooding face and shorter hair. They were equal in height, but the boy had more muscle and the way he carried himself made him seem altogether more mature than the other two._

_The final person to leave the train was a short boy. He was slighter than the others, with slim limbs that seemed entirely too long for his small body, he had mousey brown hair and bright green eyes. He seemed to be in a state of shock as he stepped out onto the platform, looking around as if he had been to the place many a time yet still seemed quite amazed that the place actually existed._

_Each of the four wore a scarf with red and gold stripes; they looked about sixteen in age but also as carefree as seven-year-olds. They walked into a new mist laughing with each other. The girl skipped along next to her brother, who seemed to have gained a new shine in his eyes as he looked through the mist at something only they could see. Through the mist silhouettes of four shadow animals could be seen floating around, one flying while the rest prowled along the ground in the wake of the four students._

Professor Trelawney awoke alone in her tower. She reached for her tarot cards, and laying them out in front of her she picked up a card and, seeing the image of a young man standing on the edge of a cliff accompanied by a small white dog, she muttered, "The fool." She smiled at the card, vaguely remembering the meaning of the card to strongly match up to events that occurred around a group of four boys who started Hogwarts in her final year. Eventually, Trelawney drifted into a dreamless sleep, awaking late the next morning with all memories of the night before forgotten.


End file.
